Are you playing a Hunter in Destiny 2? MeinMMO explains why the new armor exotic “Star-Eater Scales” currently makes it a must-have for you.
This is the armor exotic in question: With Season 14 came numerous new content – traditionally also new exotics. And if you play a Hunter, you should take a closer look at one of them – namely the exotic leg armor “Star-Eater Scales”.
Initial theoretical assessments already went about a strong exotic, now numerous experts praise it as absolutely top-tier – some, like well-known YouTuber Ehroar, even say: It is the best PvE exotic in all of Destiny and currently remains “Best in Slot” for the Hunter.
This is how you get this exotic: The Star-Eater Scales drop randomly from bosses in corresponding Lost Sectors on the Legendary and Grandmaster difficulty levels. By the way, you need to master these activities solo. More about the exotics from Lost Sectors here on MeinMMO.
Star-Eater Scales – The highest damage buff in the game
What makes this armor exotic so good that everyone is raving about it?
This is what the exotic can do according to the description: According to the official item description, these boots do the following:
- You gain additional Super energy when picking up Orbs of Power.
- When your Super energy is full and you pick up an Orb of Power, your Super energy overcharges.
- You then receive a healing boost as well as a bonus to your Super damage upon activation.
- With maximum overcharge, you also gain an overshield.
But what does it look like in practice? How high is the damage buff and what about the overshield?
This is how the exotic works in detail: When you, as the wearer of the Star-Eater Scales, pick up an Orb of Power, you receive exactly double the Super energy compared to without the exotic. Charging your Super goes significantly faster with the exotic boots.
If your Super energy is full and you pick up an orb, you gain one stack of the buff “Feast of Light” for each orb. This effect can be stacked up to 4 stacks at maximum. The stacks have no expiration time, no timer. Once you have a stack, you won’t lose it over time. You can essentially run around without any time pressure with a full 4 stacks and wait for the right moment to use your Super. Additionally, the number of stacks impacts the intensity of the bonus effects.
This is how the healing works: When you activate your Super, the healing boost with one stack is still minimal but increases with additional stacks. Only at the maximum of 4 stacks do you get full healing including overshield, which lasts for 15 seconds or until it is destroyed.
The Super buff: The Super damage also increases with additional stacks – as follows:
- 1 stack: + 15% Super damage
- 2 stacks: + 30% Super damage
- 3 stacks: + 45% Super damage
- 4 stacks: + 60% Super damage
And that is enormous. Just for context: With Star-Eater Scales, the Super damage from the lower Golden Gun tree of the Hunter (with 4 stacks) exceeds the damage of the Helm of Saint-14 by nearly 16%. Thus, the new exotic performs better than an exotic that was specifically tailored for this super and was previously regarded as the best option for it.
The Destiny expert and YouTuber Ehroar has dealt with this in detail:
Your weapons also benefit from the new exotic from the Season of the Splicer
How good is the weapon buff? But it doesn’t stop there, the Star-Eater Scales seem to work even better in further tests than initially thought. Because the weapon damage (or any damage you deal) is buffed by the new exotic equivalent to the super for the user. So if you activate your super at 4 stacks, you also deal 60% more damage with your weapons for 15 seconds.
And: The damage buff appears to stack with other damage bonuses – for example, with the mod Radiant Blade (35% more sword damage).
More details can be found here in this video by Ehroar:
Conclusion: If the Star-Eater Scales are used correctly, they give you the currently highest damage buff in the game. In PvE, this exotic is already considered meta. If you don’t have it yet or have neglected it so far, you should change that quickly. Because this will turn your Hunter into an absolute monster – not only visually but also in terms of DPS.
Have you already completed this new exotic and gained your own experiences? And what do you think of the other new exotics from Season 14? Let us and other readers of MeinMMO know in the comments.
